7-18-11 Four a.m. flights are most definitely not anyone’s first travel choice, but I was psyched to get on my plane. Destination: Divers Alert Network, North Carolina. My host, Patty Seery, picked me up a few hours later, and we finished the commute to the DAN office! Patty gave me a quick run-down on the…
7-16-11 *SCREECH* Hold your horses! We’re not going to NC just yet! Turns out I get to have one more New England Aquarium day! Just, with a bit of a twist..I don’t have to leave Duxbury! Apparently the NEA has a holding tank in Duxbury! It’s mainly used as a porpoise recovery rescue tank, but…
7-15-11 Ok, so my day today was something out of a fantasy book! I started the day off working with the penguins and today’s interns and volunteers. As many people might know the last movie in the Harry Potter series came out today (i.e. at midnight), and, in honor of that we all assigned ourselves…
7-14-11 Ahh! So much to do, so little time! I really got a good sense of the New England Aquarium today while working with the Visitor Education Department. My host for the day, Dave, introduced me to a ton of the volunteers and interns, gave me a schedule that had me moving around about every…
7-13-11 Yesterday at the New England Aquarium I spent my day around the base of the Giant Ocean Tank(GOT) in the penguin exhibit. Today I climbed a few flights of stairs and spent my day working in and around the Giant Ocean Tank ! Normally everyone helps prepare all the food in the morning, then…
7-12-11 Let me start by admitting that I have never been to the New England Aquarium before. So, when I showed up and met Paul Leonard at the front desk, I wasn’t really sure what I was in for. Turns out I was going to get a better first look at the aquarium than most…
July 7th -8th I think I’ve spent the last couple days at Harvard’s Natural Museum of History in just about every department that they have! Now I really understand what people mean when they say that when you go to a museum, you are only ever seeing about 10% of what is actually there. Museums…
July 5th -6th Ahh!! SO cool! This week was my first time riding trains on my own! And, where was I headed? Even Better: TO HARVARD! I’ve always wanted to visit, and this week I am working with some of the wonderful people at the Harvard Museum of Natural History! (If you haven’t had a…
7/01/11 It’s the last day of the races here at the 11th International Submarine Races! Soo, it promised to be an fun-filled and interesting day! After we finished launching all the subs, Neil, Kim, and I got treated to a tour of the basement! (And you’re thinking…”uhm..yay?”) BUT, what most people don’t know is, underneath…
6/28 – 6/29 AAH!! Cameras, cameras, and more cameras!! Oh..and submarines..Lottttssss of submarines! The past couple of days I spent the majority of my time in the water helping Nick Caloyianis take pictures and film the submarine races. Nick is one of the associates of the Boston Sea Rovers, and has worked with the Discovery…
6/26 & 6/27 I’m spending this week in Maryland at the 11th International (human-powered) Submarine Races (ISR). The races are held on the Caderock Naval Base in the David Taylor Model Basin, which is basically a pool, half a mile long, 50 feet wide, and 20 feet deep. It’s incredible! It’s so long, they had…
7/04/11 Hi everyone! I’m back from Maryland where I just attended the 11th human-powered International Submarine Races and the David Taylor Model Basin on the Caderock Naval Base. We had something akin to 24 differnt teams, and 28 submarines from all corners of the globe. I worked as dive staff with Vin Malkoski, Roberta Flanders,…
6/22 -6/24 I spent the last three days working at Bobby Boyle’s dive shop, Undersea Divers, in Beverly, MA. Bobby is the person that donated all of my Aqualung gear, so I was really happy that I would be able to help-out at the shop. I did a bunch of different jobs, including inventory, folding…
6/21/11 “Ghost Gear Project,” what does that make you think of? It made me think of people buying gear to make themselves look like ghosts….riiiiight..cause THAT happens in the middle of June. (I obviously had the WRONG idea). Today I met Vin Malkoski, along with Derrick, Steve, and Mike, at the Sandwich Marina in the…
6/20/11 Well, today I actually headed north instead of south! My destination? New Hampshire and Backscatter East, where I was meeting with Fred Dion to pick-up the cameras and their underwater housings that have been donated to the internship! I was pretty excited to “meet” the video camera that John Ellerbrock and Gates donated. All…
6/15/11 Another bright and early day, but that was fine with me! Today I got to do all of my cavern dives! Steve, our instructor, and I met at Blue Spring (my favorite spring that we worked at with the Cambrian Foundation). Once we got there we walked around and did a site check, then…
6/14/11 I’m still in Florida, and today was the first day of my cavern course! Steve Dunn, one of the Cambrian Foundation Interns was also taking the class, making a grand total of two students. It was actually really nice to just have two people in the class, it made it feel more like a…
6/13/11 Today we had a minimal team consisting of Rima, Amber, and Aaron from Virginia Commonwealth University, Steve Dunn, one of the Cambrian Foundation Interns, Renee Power, one of the divers, and myself. Our goal for the day was to travel to three non-divable springs in Central Florida and take some grab-samples of bacteria and…
June 10-13, 2011 WOW. I’ve spent the past few days in central Florida working with the Cambrian Foundation, which is a not for profit organization full of really diverse, and fun individuals. They’ve got their hands into everything from deep sea and cave microbe research, to giving educational presentations at schools, and exploring and mapping…
6/07/11 Today we changed it up! I met Ricky and Anthony at Fort Wetherill State Park in Jamestown, RHODE ISLAND! I had a LOT of firsts today. It was my first time in Rhode Island, my first ocean dive of the internship, and my first dive in New England! The park and ocean were beautiful,…
6/06/11 One more time! Connecticut: Part…5? I started the day at Ricky’s shop, helping Anthony assemble 100 junior reels. If nothing else, I’ve got the bowline knot down for the rest of my life! Once we finished, it was time for lunch, and then all three of us headed back to Bigelow Hollow State Park…
6/05/11 I’m beginning to think that I should just move to Connecticut! Today I met Ricky at Brownstone Quarry for another day of diving. Brownstone also doubles as a huge water park type attraction, with zip-lining, bouncy bounces (in the water) kayaking, and a whole ton of other fun stuff. But, set off to the…
6/04/11 And back to Connecticut we go! Today was more of a “for fun” trip. I headed back to Diver’s Cove for their 30th Anniversary Event. It was kind of like a big open house. There was food, a couple booths, and a bunch of people. Rick had a booth set up for Manta Industries,…
6/03/11 Today I headed off to Connecticut once again. But, this time I was off to meet with Rick Simon, one of the previous Scalli Interns (2005). He is now the owner of Manta Industries and Highseas Millwork (Privateer Divers LLC), and is an extremely accomplished diver on the side. When I got there he…
6/01/11 Today I drove down to Essex, Ct. to meet Captain Lee Livingston at Diver’s Cove. Lee is a good friend of the Sea Rovers, and was a huge help to me. He spent the better part of four hours refreshing all of the concepts and math, or Dive Theory, that I had learned in…
5-29-11 SCHOOL IS OUT! I just got back home from my Marine Ecology course in Costa Rica, which means that it is OFFICIALLY summer. Annd, that means it is time to start my adventures as the Boston Sea Rovers’ 2011 Frank Scalli Intern! Today I drove over to Undersea Divers in Beverly, MA to meet…
3-26-11 There’s nothing like a trip to a dive show to cure a little cabin fever! This Friday I drove down from Unity College (Maine) to Vin Malkoski’s house in Massachusetts. Saturday we headed out, along with Vin’s wife, Dee, and Holly Bourbon, bright and early to New Jersey. Our destination? The 35th Anniversary Beneath…
March 5th & 6th 2011 WOW. My head is reeling from the past two days. It’s been a non-stop whirlwind of introductions, generosity, and amazing people. This year the Boston Sea Rover Clinic is being held at the Crowne Plaza Boston North Shore hotel in Danvers, MA. This is the first time the Clinic has…
3-4-11 COMS My first time driving in Boston, I had woken-up bright and early to make my way to the Boston Public Library in order to attend the Career Opportunities in the Marine Sciences Symposium (‘COMS’ for short). This was the first event I attended as the 2011 recipient of the Boston Sea Rovers’ Frank…
Sunday- After flying out of Boston, changing planes in Houston, suffering through layovers that seemed to last forever (mostly because of all my excitment), I finally landed in Bonaire! Pat and Dave Morton picked me up at the airport at about 5am and gave me a mini tour of the island on our way to…
I woke up early on Tuesday and Thursday and headed to Swifts Beach in Wareham, MA. During the two high tide points in the early morning and night (during the full moon period), Senior Marine Fisheries Biologist Vin Malkoski and I counted the single, mobile, and spawning pairs of horseshoe crabs. After we randomly picked…
With my brand new DUI gear packed up in the Malkoski’s truck, we were off to Gloucester, MA for the weekend for the DUI Dog Days Rally. I was ready to do some diving in my new dry suit! I first helped out in the morning with checking the volunteers in, and then started diving….
The dive show was bigger than I expected! There were so many people and tons of booths. I was able to meet the North America Our World Underwater Scholar Josh Stewart, and everyone at the Diving Unlimited International booth. Faith Ortins (Vice President/Sales) of DUI fitted me for my new suit. I had never tried…
Today was the Sea Rover’s Career Opportunities in Marine Sciences hosted by George Buckley. I carpooled with Vin and Kim Malkoski to the Boston Public Library where we set up and handed out programs. The speakers included George Buckley, Dr. Skomal, Jim Clark, Sarah Taylor, and the 2004 and 2008 Scalli Interns Kate Douglas and…
Tonight was the night I had been waiting for! I was so excited to be named the Boston Sea Rovers 2010 Frank Scalli Annual Summer Intern! I was nervous the whole hour car ride up to Boston. After I met up with Pat and Dave Morton, we headed out to the Board of Directors dinner….
The route from my house to Gloucester is fast becoming ingrained in my mind, as I made the trip for the third time this week in order to participate in the Great Annual Fish Count, hosted by the New England Aquarium Dive Club and the Reef Environmental Education Foundation (REEF). My destination for the day…
My DUI drysuit came in handy again today as the male members of the Frank Scalli Interns — Rick Simon, Ryan Hunter, and myself — met up at Cape Ann Divers to dive one of the most popular Gloucester wrecks, the Chester Polling. We were the only divers that day, so we had the entire…
After a short break in the internship, I set off to Salem to work with Dr. Joe Buttner at the Cat Cove Marine Laboratory. Dr. Joe and Salem State College have been working with the Massachusetts Department of Marine Fisheries since 2006 to study methods to restore softshell clam (Mya arenaria) populations in the Boston…
I started my last day at the New England Aquarium back at the Giant Ocean Tank; Myrtle was (as always) the most fun to feed, but I also had a great time working with the large porcupinefish in the exhibit, who hadn’t been hungry the last times I had surface feed duties. What’s so cool…
After seeing the film crew in action yesterday in the penguin exhibit, I was itching for a chance to use my own camera in the Aquarium. The opportunity came today when I headed back to the top floor to work once again with the dive staff in the Giant Ocean Tank. Don Stark–one of the…
Back in the Penguin exhibit today, and while much of the day’s work mirrored that of Tuesday’s, two very cool things happened. First, Paul Leonard tasked me with feeding the Little Blue penguins. Little Blues, also known as Fairy penguins, are the smallest species of penguins–many visitors to the aquarium mistake them for juveniles–and also…
Well, the weather almost didn’t permit, but we fortunately were able to dive the Mary Alice B on my last day here in Lake Huron. The morning weather reports, as well as the trees surrounding the Stayer’s house, indicated fairly strong winds that would not die off until the late afternoon–too late to wait for…
Storm clouds threatened as we headed out to sea lake on the morning of my fourth day in Michigan, so we quickly adjusted our destination; instead of diving the Price, the first dive of the day would be the Regina. Both ships were large freighters that sank during a fierce storm in 1913; the Regina…
The storm finally left us overnight, and Jim and Pat Stayer were quick to jump on the opportunity to get some wreck dives in. We loaded up gear into their boat–including cameras to film both topside and underwater–and sped off to the first dive of the day, a 56′ tugboat named the Sport. This boat…
After a weekend’s respite, I returned to the action again, this time at Lake Huron, where a surprisingly tenacious storm has blown out our chances to dive for the past two days. Fortunately, the extra time on land allowed me to catch up on logging and capturing all the footage I took in Panama. Pat…
Another deep dive today, to 120′ this time. Now that we had been exposed to some of the challenges of deep diving, we were given a more specific assignment, to document distribution of various marine species at depth. This time around, everyone was prepared for narcosis at depth, no matter how subtle, and as a…
On Friday, we hopped in the boat at 0900 to take a half-hour ride to a freighter sunk about a mile off the Panama Canal entrance. This roughly 150′-long cargo ship was intentionally sunk in the mid 1970s, and we wanted to observe how much coral growth and fish activity the wreck contained now, 30…
Today was the day we’d been planning quite some time for, the day we’d make a dive past the century mark! I know some of the readers of this blog will yawn at that number, but for myself and most of the divers on this trip, who are not deco-trained, any opportunity to further our…
The halfway point of this trip found our group hard at work on a number of research projects. On Monday, we took a day off from diving; the morning was spent on a flat-bottomed boat, touring a series of mangrove swamps to collect data on the organisms found in such an environment. Besides the numerous…
Up until this point in the trip, all of our dives have been fairly close to shore, on fringing reefs generally within a quarter of a mile of land. Well that changed today, when we had the amazing opportunity to take a half hour boat ride offshore to dive a Cobia farm. This farm consisted…